


lo que siento

by epiproctan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Sexual Content, Song Lyrics, Space Flight, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 07:42:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17845253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epiproctan/pseuds/epiproctan
Summary: Eight months on a cramped spacecraft is a long time.Eight months on a cramped spacecraft is an even longer time when it turns out your co-pilot is the man you just had an unfortunate one-night stand with.Lance and Shiro learn to deal.





	lo que siento

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kalakauuas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalakauuas/gifts).



> so this fic was written as part of my group chat’s music exchange, in which we each compiled a playlist and then were given someone else’s playlist to create a piece about! I was lucky enough to be assigned kris, and you can find her wonderful playlist [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwLPv0A9w7b2ylynIer29eJqQZeoJxSx-)
> 
> but ALSO today happens to be a very special day and that is kris’s birthday!! so even though it’s cheating i’m posting this a bit early in honor of this very important event. happy birthday, kris!!! i really hope you enjoy and have the most amazing day, because you deserve it <3
> 
> thank you to my trusty beta [moth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingisland/pseuds/flyingisland)!!

  1. **Springtime**



Lance wakes up.

His bedroom is dark. The world is still. And when he rolls over to look at his phone, it reads 1:12 AM. 

_ Hell yeah _ . Five more hours of sleep sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Lance stretches, luxuriating in the softness of his mattress, the feeling of resting his head on a pillow with the aid of natural gravity. He plans on getting in some real good dreams before his alarm goes off. 

Except then he hears a distant creaking. Quiet footsteps fading away. The sound of a door clicking shut. And it’s got Lance sitting bolt upright. 

Well,  _ fuck _ . 

There had been one more person in this bed when Lance fell asleep. There had been skin on his skin and the sound of another person breathing and Lance had had plans to make pancakes in the morning. But that was definitely the sound of Lance’s  _ front _ door closing behind someone’s receding footsteps, and that someone probably isn’t coming back.

That’s a bummer.

It’s not just any bummer. It’s a huge bummer. Because the guy in Lance’s bed hadn’t been just any guy. 

Lance turns on the lamp on his bedside table and looks around. He gets up and peeks into the bathroom. He pads into the kitchen and checks the scraps of paper by the front door. 

No phone number. No note. No sign that he had ever been there. 

Well, whatever. It’s probably for the best. Even Lance is aware that, “Sorry, it’ll be eight months until I can get back to you,” sounds like a flake out. Who picks up guys at a bar the night before leaving on a work trip that long anyway? 

Lance does, but that’s his own business. He should be sleeping. He’s got a long day ahead of him that’s just not going to give him any leeway to be hung up on this. 

Even if he just missed his chance to woo the kind and handsome man of his dreams, his role model and hero, the great, the accomplished, the inspiring Takashi Shirogane. 

  1. **A otra persona no he podido amar y te juro que lo he tratado**



Lance is still feeling down—and a little bit hungover—as he goes through his pre-boarding checks the next morning. 

“Did you hear they took Iverson off the mission?” asks the doctor while shining her light directly into Lance’s poor, sensitive eyes.

“Huh?” Lance pulls himself out of his moping haze. “But he’s the Pilot-in-Command.”

“They replaced him last minute,” she replies, checking off list items on her tablet. 

“With who?” 

“Don’t know.” The doctor shrugs. “It’s top secret.”

Wack. But whatever. Work is work. Lance is more likely to get on whoever’s nerves he’s about to spend the next eight months with than they are his, so it’s not like it matters to him one way or the other. 

Unless it’s someone really cute, of course. But that line of thought leads him right back to the night before. He _slept with_ _Takashi Shirogane_. But with the way he’d hightailed it out of there while Lance was sleeping, it was pretty obvious it was supposed to be a hit it and quit it situation. Hump and dump. Smash and dash. He clearly didn’t really want to see Lance again. So. 

It’s whatever. 

  1. **We’re lowkey my fantasy**



“Holy shit,” Lance says.

“You—you’re a pilot?” Shiro asks. 

Shiro’s body is only half in the cockpit, the other half left frozen outside when he stopped short climbing in. That was about five seconds ago now, and neither of them has moved since other than to raise their eyebrows and let their jaws drop. 

Lance’s body catches up to the situation before his mind does. He stands out of his seat and smoothes out the wrinkles in his flight suit. 

“Lance McClain, First Officer,” he introduces himself. 

A little bit slower on the uptake, Shiro frowns before stepping forward and extending a hand. 

“Captain Takashi Shirogane,” he replies. 

  1. **I’ve never seen your type of species**



“Hey, so,” Shiro says, switching off the radio to ground control. He takes off his helmet, too, which means whatever he says is going to happen in the isolated air of the cockpit, cut off from the rest of the universe by the vacuum of space. “You didn’t know, right?” 

“Know what?” Lance asks, following Shiro’s example of removing his helmet. It’s the first moment of peace since pre-departure, and as much as Lance wants to spend it watching Earth get smaller and smaller in their back window, Shiro seems to have other plans. 

“Who I was. Last night.” 

“Of course I knew,” Lance says. “You’re only the youngest pilot to ever have been on a deep space mission.”

He takes a moment to tone down the excitement in his voice. 

“But, uh, I didn’t know you’d be on this mission. I swear.” 

Because the only thing more embarrassing than meeting the one-night stand who left without a word is finding out the next day that 1. he’s basically your boss and 2. you’re about to spend the next eight months with him in a glorified paint bucket. If a time machine appeared in front of Lance right now, would he go back and warn himself not to do it?

Fuck no, the sex was amazing. 

But he  _ would _ probably tell himself not to get too attached, or at least to be prepared for the worst aftermath imaginable. Because that’s the sort of hell he’s stuck in now. 

“I figured,” Shiro says, and he sounds faintly unamused. 

Lance tries not to take it personally. He’s not too amused either. 

“Well, I’m looking forward to working with you, Lance,” Shiro says, his voice shifting hues to something warmer, but still distant and professional. Professional, because that’s what they are. Professionals. And this is their job. No funny business here. Just real business. 

“Yeah, me too,” Lance says. “I mean—I’m looking forward to working with you too. Not I’m looking forward to working with me. I do that all the time, and let me tell you I definitely don’t look forward to  _ that _ .”

Shiro snorts what could be a laugh, and Lance counts it as a success. He glows a little bit, right in his chest.

“Right, I got that,” Shiro replies, smiling a little bit. 

But then the grin fades from his face, and so does the light inside of Lance.

“About last night, though,” he says. “We should keep that quiet. It’s inappropriate.”

“Yeah, oh yeah, of course,” Lance says quickly. “I thought you wouldn’t want anyone—I mean, yeah. I won’t tell.”

  1. **I got the baddest bitch**



“I slept with Shiro last night.”

Hunk levels Lance an unimpressed look. “TMI, Lance.” 

That very unimpressed look’s effectiveness is probably lessened due to the fact that from Lance’s perspective, Hunk is upside-down. Of course, there’s no such thing as upside-down in space though. It’s all very relative when there are no points of reference except your own body. 

“No, Hunk, I  _ slept _ with  _ Shiro _ . The captain of this flight? The guy piloting this big piece of metal right now.”

Hunk’s brow furrows. “Isn’t that against the rules?”

“Probably,” Lance says. “I didn’t know he was going to be on this mission though!”

Hunk’s brow furrows even further. He looks up (down?) from his work recalibrating the whatever-the-hells to glare at Lance. “Don’t you  _ dare _ have sex anywhere on this spacecraft.” 

“I would  _ never _ ,” Lance says, aghast. 

Okay, he totally would. Hunk doesn’t need to know that, though. 

“Shiro’s definitely not interested anyway,” Lance says. “He made that pretty clear.”

Hunk goes back to his work, momentarily pacified. “Left you cold and lonely in the middle of the night, huh?” 

Lance lets himself float towards the viewport, watching the dark expanse beyond. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  1. **Zero gravity in the room like NASA**



There’s nothing particularly interesting going on out here, to tell the truth. Space is cool. It’s cool to be in space. But once you can’t gaze upon Earth’s beauty anymore, big and blue and wonderful hanging just outside the viewport, there isn’t much that sets being in space apart from living in a studio apartment without gravity where someone wallpapered the room in shots from Hubble and every piece of food is vacuum-sealed. Oh, and you’re squeezed in there with five other people. 

This is Lance’s first long-term mission. He flew a shuttle to the moon but he didn’t get to leave the cockpit once they got there. He guesses it’s fine because Pidge brought him a rock off Mars from her last trip, even though that’s illegal and possibly unsafe. She claims she disinfected it but who knows with her, really. 

Anyway, the point is there’s not much out here, and Lance is about to learn how much “not much” really is. Their trajectory takes them straight through the solar system, accounting for the pull of gravity from the nearby planets and anything else that might get in their way, so it’s not like there’s very much manual steering that has to be done. Lance feels pretty superfluous already, because Shiro hangs out in the cockpit like it’s his own personal beachside bungalow. 

After an awkward, avoidant 24 hours, Lance joins him. Might as well get to know the guy. They’re going to be here for a while, after all. 

It’s not weird that Lance knows what his dick looks like. Not weird at all. 

“Hey,” Lance says, settling into the cockpit beside him. Sitting would be a strong word for it. They don’t have gravity going right now and the only thing keeping Shiro to the chair is his own effort. 

“Oh.” Shiro looks up from what appears to be old flight logs. Some light reading for the road, Lance guesses. “Hey.”

Lance lets the quiet stretch out for a little bit, just to acknowledge it, before he starts talking. 

“So do you know why they kicked Iverson off?” he asks. 

Shiro smiles, politely. A little sheepish. 

“That was my fault actually,” he says. “I asked to be given an assignment right away and Iverson was willing to give this one up.”

“You must really love flying,” Lance replies, a little bit flatly. It’s not that he doesn’t. He just doesn’t know if he would choose to do it for eight months straight unless it was part of his job. He misses the luxuries of land already. 

“I do,” Shiro says, but trails off in a tone that makes Lance realize his love of flying probably doesn’t have much to do with why Shiro’s here right now. There’s a “but” in there. 

Lance wonders idly if the hickey he left on the junction of Shiro’s neck and shoulder is still there. His flight suit covers it, covers almost all of his skin actually, which is a shame. 

“You didn’t tell me you were a pilot,” Shiro says. 

Lance shrugs. “You didn’t ask.”

They had actually talked about a lot of things at the bar before heading back to Lance’s place. Lance  _ had _ told Shiro that he loved space, because they’d tipsily talked about astronomy for at least a solid thirty minutes. Maybe Lance had laid it on a little too thick with the starstruck questions about what Shiro’s missions were like, though. He’d just wanted to know, okay? He had a promotional photo of Shiro as his desktop background for like six months one time. 

“Maybe because you were too busy telling me about your cats,” Shiro says. 

“Oh come on!” Lance replies. “I didn’t talk about them  _ that _ much.” 

“Yeah, you only showed me about seventy pictures or so.”

Shiro is grinning at him with his sideways glance, so Lance doesn’t actually take offense. 

“Fine,” Lance replies, because if he remembers correctly, and he does, Shiro was the one swiping through his phone and cooing over the images. “I’ll withhold all adorable photos of them from now on then.”

“Don’t do that,” Shiro says, resettling comfortably. “Do you have someone taking care of them while you’re up here?”

“My sister’s watching them for me,” Lance says. “Can’t wait to get back down there. I miss them already.”

Shiro laughs. “It’s only day two. We still have a while to go.”

“I know, I know. You know what it’s like though. It’s cool up here, but part of you just always wants to go home.”

Shiro shrugs. “There’s no real reason for me to be in a rush to get back there, I guess.”

“Don’t you have someone waiting for you back down there?” Lance asks, frowning. “A boyfriend or something?”

“Nope,” Shiro says. “You?”

“Of course I do,” Lance says, puffing his chest out. 

Then, deflating, “No, I don’t. That was a lie.”

It earns a breath of laughter from Shiro, but then his expression twists. 

“I actually just cut it off with someone,” he admits. “A little while before you and I, uh, met.”

Well,  _ that _ explains a lot. 

“So that’s why you were at that bar that night,” Lance says. “Looking for a little rebound, huh?” 

Panic flairs in Shiro’s eyes, and he looks up at Lance in surprise. “No, no, not at all! It wasn’t anything like that. I normally don’t do that sort of stuff.” 

Lance raises an eyebrow. “Really?” 

“Really. I swear.” 

“I’ve heard that one before,” Lance snorts. “I’ve  _ said _ that one before. Come on, man.”

Shiro shifts uncomfortably, and looks behind him, as though marking the nearest exits. Lance laughs internally.  _ It’s either here or the cold dark void, buddy.  _

“Really,” Shiro repeats, looking a little nervous. “Picking people up at bars and having one night stands isn’t my thing. But.” He clears his throat, still looking behind him. Is that pink on his cheeks? “You have to know this already but…you’re very handsome, Lance.”

Lance feels his eyebrows climb, his mouth form into a little ‘o’. Well. Well then. 

Shiro clears his throat  _ again _ . “Anyway, I’m going to go check if they need any help in the lab.” He pushes himself out of his chair abruptly, towards the entryway. “Keep an eye on the flight path.”

It’s not until after he’s gone that Lance is able to kickstart his body. 

“Wait, no! You can’t just say something like that and then leave!” he calls, twisting around in his chair. But Shiro’s long gone, leaving only Hunk staring at him through the hatch from across the deck with a questioning expression. 

  1. **All I hear is heartbeats growin’ faster**



There are two stationary bikes on the living deck, side-by-side. 

Lance can’t actually  _ avoid _ seeing Shiro ride one, even if he wanted to. The craft is way too small. But he also doesn’t want to. 

In fact, he comes up as Shiro is pushing through the first ten minutes of his workout. Because it’s too good of a view to resist. Already, Shiro has sweat beading at his hairline, his breathing coming in pants. He’s changed out of his flight suit to something a little more flexible and uh, wow. Lance has seen those muscles up close and personal but that doesn’t make them any less breathtaking now. 

Lance slings his leg over the machine next to Shiro, strapping himself in so he doesn’t go floating off when he tries to pedal. 

“Oh, by the way?” Lance says, half turning towards Shiro as he begins to exercise. “I  _ did _ tell you I’m a pilot.”

Shiro’s brow furrows. “What? When?” 

“When we were about to leave the bar and I said, ‘I’m an astronaut, and my next mission is to explore Uranus.’”

Shiro groans, and it comes out all breathy from the exertion. Damn, this man  _ does things _ to Lance. “I thought that was just a dumb pick-up line.”

“It was! But I was also telling the truth.”

There’s laughter.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t some play on ‘You’re out of this world.’”

“You get that one a lot?” 

“You have no idea.”

“I have some idea.” Lance grins. “I use that one myself occasionally.”

Shiro eyes him as sweat drips down his brow. “I’m sure a guy like you is on the receiving end of that too.”

Lance almost stops pedaling, and his mouth curls into a smile. 

  1. **Just for you I might jeopardize, my whole life I might sacrifice**



“It’s literally in the contracts we signed, Lance,” Hunk whispers loudly. “I looked it up. Crew members are not allowed to have sexual or romantic relationship amongst themselves!”

Lance tips his head back so he can see into the flight deck. Shiro has headphones on, probably listening to mission control. Probably not listening to them. 

“No one is forming any kind of relationship,” Lance says, making sure his sleeping bag is securely tied down. On his first mission, he floated into the bathroom in his sleep. That was not a good time. “It was lighthearted flirting!”

“Lighthearted flirting with a guy you already slept with,” Hunk hisses from his own sleeping bag. 

“Can you blame me?” Lance jerks his head in Shiro’s direction. Even from here where Lance can only see the back of his head, he’s enamored. It’s the most attractive back of a head he’s ever seen.

“Yes!” Hunk replies. “You’re going to get in trouble! Even worse, there might be PDA! Eugh.”

“No PDA,” Lance promises. “I think he’s joking around, anyway. He’s not interested, remember? We’re just going to be friends.”

  1. **Oye cari** **ño, solo pienso en ti**



Time passes in a way that surprises Lance. 

He’d really thought every single day on this long-ass mission was going to be a drag. Wake up, work, go to sleep. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy his missions but one that’s eight months long sounds like a recipe for monotony. 

But there are a few things making his life not miserable, even after a week or two or three of cramped space travel. Hunk’s here, which is cool. Having your best friend around is always a plus. He even managed to sneak on some food that doesn’t taste like cardboard, which Lance appreciates. 

Then there’s Shiro. 

Shiro is the bright star in the black void of Lance’s day, shining light on everything aboard the ship. 

Of course, it’s nice that he’s handsome and fun to look at. That’s good. That’s really good. That alone gives Lance a reason to roll out of his sleeping sack in the morning. But what’s even better is the fact that he’s a funny and smart dude. Their conversations are great. They listen to music together and quote memes at each other and Shiro even goes out of his way to say hi to Veronica when Lance calls her. 

And sometimes he flirts with Lance. Which is. Cool. Totally cool. 

  1. **When I wake up every morning until I go back to sleep**



Uh, so. 

There’s a movie playing on Shiro’s screen. And they’re watching it. Together. With the same pair of earbuds, one in Shiro’s ear and the other in Lance’s. Because that’s a thing they do now. And Shiro’s hand at some point ended up on Lance’s knee.

Wow.

So what is Lance to do but drop his head onto Shiro’s shoulder, let his temple rest there on that broad, beautiful body? Lance doesn’t know what the movie is about, but he does know this: Shiro is warm and kinda comfy for such a strapping dude. 

And Shiro lets him stay there for the duration of the movie, which is really,  _ really _ nice. Lance is getting real cozy here, and he knows the fact that Shiro hasn’t shaken him off, or moved his hand from Lance’s knee, or made some excuse to get up and reposition them means something. It has to. 

But tragically, the credits roll eventually, and Lance knows that’s his cue to move. Just as he’s about to separate himself to stretch out his spine, a little cramped from his awkward bent-at-the-neck position, Shiro turns and looks at him. 

“Hey, Lance,” Shiro says, but in a slow, careful way that Lance doesn’t entirely like. 

“What’s up?” he asks, trying to keep it light and casual, but Shiro’s not smiling. 

“I don’t want to give you the wrong idea,” he says, and Lance’s stomach drops. Which is a weird thing to happen when there’s no gravity. 

“The wrong idea?” Lance repeats. 

This is it. This is where Shiro tells him this has been fun and all, but he’s just not interested. There was a reason he left Lance’s room without saying goodbye, after all. How could he be down for this after that? If a night of drunken Lance and the best sex Lance has ever had wasn’t good enough for Shiro, nothing’s going to be. 

“Lance,” Shiro says, and takes a deep breath. “I just want you to know that even though I feel like we have a good thing going here, it’s deeply frowned upon to have relationships among the crew of long-term missions like this.”

Lance gapes at him. Whoa, what? 

“So you’re saying you  _ would _ have a relationship with me.”

Shiro sighs and rubs his forehead. “I think you’re missing the point here—” 

“Nah, nah,” Lance cuts in, resigned. Gotta be an adult sometimes. “I get it, man. We’re friends.”

“Yeah.” Shiro tilts his head and smiles adorably in a way that has Lance’s heart pitter-pattering. “Friends.”

  1. **How I wish you were mine**



“Okay, but say you  _ did _ feel that way—”

“I already said we can’t, Lance.”

  1. **I think of you all the time**



“Well. I’m just saying. I’m not opposed if you ever want to give it another shot.” 

Shiro laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

  1. **Kick it with me, I don’t care if the sun is gone**



This shit, this shit right here. It’s fucking torture, man. 

Lance keeps his hands busy with piloting and helping Commander Holt out in the lab, but that’s not enough to keep his mind busy. Or worse, his eyes busy. Takashi Shirogane was invented to be a living distraction. When he floats into the room you have no choice but to be like,  _ Wow, dang,  _ because he’s got the body of a model and the face of another, equally attractive model. 

Not to mention, the dude is a total sweetheart. One hundred percent pure certified bring home to mama material. Attractive and sweet and smart, too. It’s a killer combination. 

So it’s no surprise that Lance is mooning over him,  _ hard _ . It’s the chest-feels-warm-and-fuzzy-when-he-walks-in-the-room kind of crush. And the worst part is, Shiro  _ likes him back _ .

(At least Lance thinks he probably does. Because of what he said. It also explains the comfortable physicality and the lingering looks and the long talks in the flight deck.)

That’s just not fair. That’s a cruel joke. Lance can look at Shiro and Shiro can look back and they can both make eye contact and smile a little bit but Lance can’t even  _ kiss _ the guy. 

  1. **Know my heart like gold but it break like glass**



“What if he only likes me because I’m the first guy he was with after breaking up with Adam?” Lance asks. 

“What if you shouldn’t even be worrying about this because we’re approximately 400 million miles away from Earth?” Hunk replies from the inside of the machinery he’s tinkering with. 

“Do you think he’s only hanging out with me because I’m the only option out here?” 

“Well excuse  _ me _ ,” Hunk says. 

“Maybe he’s just trying to spare my feelings.” Lance stares out the viewport, where one of Jupiter’s moons hangs in the distance, lonely and haunting. “Maybe he just doesn’t want to have to deal with me when we’re in close quarters so he’s pretending to be interested and when we get back to Earth he’s going to leave me again like he did the first time.”

“Really Lance?” Hunk asks. “Do you hear yourself?”

Lance laughs. “You’re right. He’s definitely into me.”

  1. **And if you're down to spend your summer with me, just let me know**



Okay, but there is some anxiety there. Lance, to his own surprise, really likes the guy. But that doesn’t mean Shiro is serious about him in return. After all, he did leave Lance without saying goodbye.

They’re just existing by the viewport, watching the stars outside. It’s crazy how many they can see out here, and they both spend a lot of time staring out into space. It’s a nice, calming, relaxing time for the both of them, but something’s on Lance’s mind. 

“Hey Shiro,” he says. “Can I ask you something?” 

“Yeah,” Shiro replies, because of course he does. “What’s up?”

Lance doesn’t want to look straight at him.

“I was just wondering. When we get back down to Earth, do you wanna go out for coffee or something?”

“Yeah,” Shiro says. “Sure.”

Lance snaps his gaze up to him, eyes narrowed, but there’s no sign that Shiro is joking or just stringing him along. 

“Really?” Lance asks. 

“What, you don’t believe me?” Shiro smiles. “I’m not lying.”

His expression  _ looks _ genuine, and he seems pleased and relaxed right now, but there’s still a chance he doesn’t totally get what’s going on right now. 

“I meant as a date.”

Shiro angles his body towards him, eyeing him appraisingly. For a moment Lance thinks he’s totally blown it with that, but Shiro doesn’t look surprised. He looks more concerned than anything.

“Lance, what is this about?” Shiro asks. 

“I don’t know,” Lance says, averting his eyes. “I was just thinking about how maybe you’re too nice to outright reject me. Because it’d be awkward. Close quarters and all. And maybe I’m reading too far into things.”

Shiro’s still studying him when Lance looks up again. He seems to come to a decision when their eyes meet, because he shifts closer. 

“I like you, Lance,” Shiro says. “I take this job pretty seriously, but I do like you.” 

That’s nice. It is. And Lance doesn’t not believe him but— 

“How come you left that night then?” Lance asks. Check and mate. Take that, sappy confessions.

Shiro tilts his head back and groans. “Lance. I was about to leave on an eight-month mission. I wanted to sleep in my own bed. I tried to wake you up but you were out cold.”

Okay, that sort of checks out. Lance sleeps like the dead when he’s been drinking. 

But words still only mean so much.

Shiro must see his expression because he reaches out and tilts Lance’s chin up with his fingers. 

“Want me to prove it?” he asks in a quiet voice.

Lance nods, feeling the warmth of his hand on his jaw. 

Shiro takes a deep breath and looks around. There’s no one in the room but them. 

And so Shiro leans in close to Lance, using the hand on his chin to slide up to his cheek, hold him steady, as he shuts his eyes and tilts his head and parts his lips just a fraction of an inch and—

He kisses Lance. 

It’s only for a second. And it’s only a brush of lips. 

But it’s only the single most heart-stopping moment of Lance’s life. 

Shiro comes away smiling, his fingers still warm on Lance’s jaw. 

“And I promise when we get to Earth,” he says, “I’ll take you out for coffee.”

  1. **And can you make it last forever?**



The problem with kisses is that once you’ve had one you want more. 

Lance knows he’s not the only one with that problem, because Shiro’s eyes keep slipping down to his lips while he’s talking, and as much as he tries to play it off, Lance doesn’t miss it. Sometimes Shiro’s hand comes up and his thumb presses down against Lance’s chin, like he’s thinking about it. But he always backs off at the last second. 

Lance dreams about it. Kisses from Shiro. Getting to kiss him deep and hungry and without worrying if their jobs or the comfort of the other people around them are on the line.

Dreams are not as good as the real thing. 

The upside is sometimes the real thing will at least hold his hand when no one else is around. Sometimes he’ll rest his wide palm on the back of Lance’s neck and stroke his thumb down the side of it. It’s very intimate. Warm. 

They both want more, and Lance knows it.

All their food comes in little dehydrated plastic pouches. There’s nothing sexy about it, but there are a lot of things that are sexy about Shiro, so eating with him, even in space, isn’t the unsexiest thing Lance has ever experienced.

“Oh no, you’re totally wrong. You’ve gotta see the beaches in Cuba, man,” Lance tells him as he polishes off what he thinks was supposed to be spinach. “Nowhere else compares.”

“Oh yeah? They’re better than Okinawa?” Shiro prods. 

“Definitely.” Lance dreamily looks off into middle distance. “The sand is so soft and the ocean is so clear, it’s insane. The water’s really warm, too. You can just hang out in it for hours.” 

He focuses back in to realize that Shiro is just gazing at him softly, not saying anything, so he goes on.

“I remember I would go down there as a kid and swim every day. My parents couldn’t get me out of the water. They used to say a shark would come get me if I played past curfew but I didn’t care.” Lance laughs quietly at himself. “I can’t wait to go back when we get down to Earth. There seriously isn’t anywhere else in the universe better than Varadero Beach. When it storms you can see the palm trees swaying outside and it smells so….”

Lance trails off because suddenly, Shiro is in his space, and he’s floating closer. Lance raises his eyebrows at him in surprise, but Shiro doesn’t stop. He draws in, until he’s only inches from Lance’s face. 

Lance shuts his eyes, and Shiro closes the distance. 

It’s different from their first kiss. It’s a little slower, a little deeper, a little more open. It floods Lance with a warmth like a blush. It tingles down to Lance’s toes. It feels good. 

Shiro pulls away. 

“Wh—” Lance is almost speechless. He blinks a few times, feels the smile unfurling over his mouth, and stares at Shiro. “What was that for?”

“You were really passionate, talking about the beach,” Shiro says. “It was cute.”

“Oh.” Lance shifts, suddenly feeling bashful. He looks away, but he can’t stop smiling. 

“That’s really cute too,” Shiro says hopelessly, and leans in again like there’s not enough self-restraint in his body to stop him. 

This time Lance rises to meet him, lips primed and ready for him. 

“I can be cute for you all day,” Lance breathes against his lips when they break apart.

Shiro hums his assent into his mouth.

  1. **Girl we in public, don’t be too loud**



After that, they don’t stop. 

Sometimes Shiro will pull back and look at Lance, like he’s about to say something. Like the, “We shouldn’t be doing this,” is on the tip of his tongue. But then he meets Lance’s eyes and it’s like he can’t help himself from dipping back in again. 

Lance just enjoys every minute of it. 

Of course, it’s not like the space shuttle has become Makeout Central. They’re still careful to keep it on the DL. Lance knows that Hunk has his suspicions because he shoots Lance these very narrow-eyed looks from time to time, but it’s not like he and Shiro are going around swapping spit right in front of everyone’s faces, okay? They’re respectful. And they don’t want to get reported. So.

But they do make out. Sometimes. Often. It’s nice. Lance enjoys spending time with Shiro, and he also enjoys having his tongue in his mouth. 

It’s a little frustrating though because Lance  _ knows _ what’s under Shiro’s clothes. He  _ knows _ what the man is packing and he would do anything for a little taste of that again. He tries to be grateful for what he has, i.e. Shiro’s mouth, but a boy in the cold of space has needs, alright? He can only take so much wanting. 

It probably comes as no surprise to either of them when he breaks. 

They’re kissing in Shiro’s sleeping space, and they’re all pressed up together because there’s no reason not to be, and Lance  _ feels him  _ through his sweatpants against his thigh and that’s it. He can’t take it anymore. 

He pulls back with a gasp of air to gather himself, and levels Shiro his most seductive stare.

“Have you ever had sex in zero-G?” Lance asks. 

Shiro raises an eyebrow and eyes him carefully. “I haven’t.”

“Want to have had sex in zero-G?” Lance asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Lance,” Shiro says shortly, but is also currently readjusting his pants to make way for certain changes down there.

“That’s not a no.”

Shiro sighs and rubs the scar at the bridge of his nose. “We’re on a small space shuttle with four other people.”

“I can be quiet,” Lance says. “We can go into the bathroom and lock the door.” 

“The bathroom?” Shiro echoes. “Lance, I  _ want _ to have sex with you, but I’m just not sure if this is the time or place.” 

“Alright,” Lance says. “That’s totally cool. It was just a suggestion.”

He leans in to give Shiro a peck on the lips again, but Shiro has different plans for the kiss. He opens up and clutches Lance closer, pulling him against his chest. His hands land on Lance’s back, but seem incapable of stopping themselves from creeping lower.

“Fine,” Shiro huffs when he breaks away, breathing hard. “Let’s go in the flight deck and close the hatch.”

And so, Lance and Shiro can now say they’ve had sex in zero-G. 

Afterward Shiro holds him close and they float over the console as they both stare into the stars. It’s warm here, so different from the cold and empty way Lance has always thought of space.

Lance laughs. 

“What’s so funny?” Shiro asks, brushing his knuckles down the side of Lance’s face.

“We can’t tell Hunk,” Lance says. “He’d be so mad.”

  1. **Don’t you know you’re something else?**



“Lance, I specifically told you to  _ not _ have sex on this spacecraft and what do you do?”

Lance pouts. “It was in the cockpit! You don’t even go in there.”

Hunk gives a snort, and Lance can’t understand what’s so funny until Hunk says, “The  _ cock _ pit.”

Laughing, Lance guesses he’s forgiven then. At least until the smile slides off Hunk’s face and he levels a glare at Lance. 

“Don’t do it again,” he says. 

  1. **Won’t get hall of fame dick from a minor league dude**



They do it again.

  1. **I can’t keep on losing you over complications**



This is…weird. 

Lance has missed Earth. He definitely has. He’s missed his mom and his dad and his cats and his friends and his siblings and his nieces and nephews. He’s missed real running water, and a bed he doesn’t have to strap himself to, and sunlight and fresh air and trees and the ocean. He’s missed having ground beneath his feet and gravity that feels natural to him. 

But Lance is also going to miss this trip. These amazing eight months with Shiro. It went faster than he could’ve ever imagined and now...it’s over.

Once they disembark, there isn’t even time to say goodbye before they’re rushed off to their separate quarantines. It isn’t until he’s sitting there, being examined by the same doctor who saw him off, that he realizes he never even got Shiro’s phone number. 

Well. That’s a huge bummer. 

Maybe there will be a chance later. 

Or maybe Shiro never wanted to keep in touch with him after all.

  1. **Y pasando tiempo juntos is the ultimate dream**



Lance is on day three of his post-mission nap marathon when he hears a knock on his door. 

It’s ridiculous and infuriating that anyone would try to bother him at a time like this. He’s tired, and he hasn’t heard a word from Shiro, and he misses him. He’s allowed to sit around by himself for a few days.  

But Lance still drags himself out of bed and through his apartment. He turns the knob and swings the door open. “Hello?” 

“Hey,” Shiro says from the other side. “I think I promised you coffee.”


End file.
